Sports Shorts

OROVILLE, Calif. (AP) _ Former World Boxing Council featherweight champion Bobby Chacon and former wife Melissa are suing their financial consultants for allegedly mismanaging investments.

The suit, filed last week in Butte County Superior Court by Oroville attorney Steven Howell, seeks $2 million in punitive damages and a return of their $25,000 investment.

The defendants are from Chico: certified public accountants Dennis Ragain, Ray Spiker and Terry Horne, and investors Stanley Korock and Brian Sweeney.

A spokeswoman for Spiker Accountancy Corp. said Wednesday, ″We’re not making any comments.″

The suit said they suffered financial losses after investing $25,000 through the accountancy firm in early 1984, but does not specify the investment.

---

NEW YORK (AP) - Gayle David Bradshaw of Augusta, Ga., has been named referee for the U.S. Open Championships, the United States Tennis Association announced.

Bradshaw served as deputy referee at the 1985 U.S. Open. He currently serves as an assistant administrator and tour director for the USTA Circuit, a position he has held fulltime since 1983 and part-time from 1980-83.

He was the assistant referee at the Lipton International Players Championships at Boca Raton, Fla., in February and, as a certified international chair umpire and referee, he worked a Nabisco Grand Prix event in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last year as a chair umpire and referee.

Bradshaw, 37, attended the University of Oklahoma and was the Big Eight singles champion in 1969. He and his wife, Laurel, live in Augusta.

---

CINCINNATI (AP) - Cincinnati Reds third baseman Buddy Bell won’t have to wear a cast for a hairline fracture to a finger on his throwing hand, according to a team spokesman.

X-rays discovered the fracture at the tip of the middle finger on his right hand Wednesday, spokesman Jim Ferguson said. The injury isn’t expected to keep Bell out for very long.

Bell was hit by a pitch Monday in Detroit during an exhibition game to benefit youth baseball.

The third baseman, who sat out Wednesday’s 8-0 loss after a pinch- hitting appearance Tuesday night, is batting just .157.

---

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) - A black basketball official has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the National Basketball Association claiming the league refused to hire him because he was ″too dark in skin color.″

The suit was filed by Jesse Hall of Kansas City, Kan., who has officiated Continental Basketball Association games and completed four years of referee training for the NBA in 1984.

Hall’s suit claims that his trial performance was superior and that he was assured by NBA officials that he would be hired as a full-time referee. In April 1984, Hall said, he was told he would not be hired because he was ″too dark to referee in the NBA.″

Gary Bettman, the NBA’s legal counsel in New York, said Hall’s complaints are ″absolutely frivolous.″ He said seven of the league’s 30 referees are black.

---

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Kansas City Sizzlers owner Bernie Glannon has all but officially announced that the Continental Basketball Association team is moving to Topeka, Kan., saying the team’s future in Kansas City seems hopeless.

″Within two weeks we’ll decide the future of the Sizzlers, stay in Kansas City or move to Topeka,″ Glannon said Wednesday. ″My preference would be to stay here, but we have to simply face the facts.

″Everybody involved has made a concerted effort, but the season-ticket sales drives have done poorly. I have to say it’s not working here. The option would be to go to Topeka, but we can’t go there without leases,″ he said.

In 24 home dates the Sizzlers’ turnstile count at Municipal Auditorium was 63,502, an average of 2,646.

---

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The tournament director of the U.S. Open Clay Courts championships, believes its premature to decide if shifting the tournament from a summer to a spring event was a bad move.

″It’s going to take a while for the tournament to be established in the minds of fans and players as a spring event,″ Tom Sams said Wednesday as tournament officials struggled in a losing battle with the weather. ″If we can have a decent shake with the weather, we’ll be able to build.″

Only one match was completed Wednesday as about 1 1/2 inches of rain fell.

Manuela Maleeva of Bulgaria, seeded second in quest of the $38,000 top women’s prize, advanced to the fourth round. She defeated No. 9 Helen Kelesi of Canada, 6-3, 6-1.